be AUDacious

progress: January goals

Since we're almost at the end of the month, I thought I'd go ahead and post my progress on my January goals. Overall, I think I did fairly well. There are a couple of things that I wish I'd gotten to, or done more of, but I keep reminding myself that these things are all works in progress, in a sense, and that moving toward having these things as a daily part of my life is something that isn't just going to happen overnight. So here's the status report:

* read 8 books from bookshelves
I read more than 8 books this month, but  not all of them came from my own bookshelves. Despite my best intentions to only read from my shelves, I made a big library trip at the beginning of the month, so those took up a bit of my reading time. Here's the list (starred books came from my shelves):

The Fred Factor, Mark Sanborn
*Stitch N' Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook, Debbie Stoller
*The Lake House, James Patterson
Odd Thomas, Dean Koontz
Swallowing Darkness, Laurell K. Hamilton
*Extraordinary Engines: The Definitive Steampunk Anthology, Nick Gevers
*Thirteen Reasons Why, Jay Asher
The Willoughbys, Lois Lowry
The Light Ages, Ian McLeod
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer
Roads: Driving America's Great Highways, Larry McMurtry
Crank, Ellen Hopkins
When the Wind Blows, James Patterson

I'm still working my way through the Ralph Fletcher book (it's from my shelves) and Pride & Prejudice. The rest in my sidebar will just get carried over to next month. I definitely recommend a few of these: Odd Thomas, The Guernsey (etc), and Thirteen Reasons Why.

* try 4 new recipes
While our new recipes didn't necessarily introduce new foods into our daily menu, they did introduce new ways of cooking the same foods, which is a big plus in my opinion. Here are the 3 that we tried:

Tuna cakes (although we substituted salmon for the tuna and left out the carrots): Chris and I really liked these, although the girls weren't as wild about them.

Potato smashers: an easy and fun way to get the kids involved in cooking -- these are a little messy to cook, but they taste great

Crunchy chicken strips: the girls thought these were a bit too crunchy, but I LOVED them. This isn't the exact recipe we used, but it is close enough. Our original recipe called for Honey Bunches of Oats cereal, but we did it with cornflakes the second time and that was good too. Instead of milk, we used egg, and there was no garlic involved. However, I'm thinking that this is something you could change up depending on your own preferences pretty easily.

* take lunch 3x a week
This was pretty hit or miss. I kept up with it a couple of times each week, but when I travel, it's harder to take my lunch because I'm not always guaranteed of somewhere to store it. I'm looking into some better options for this upcoming month; but that will have to wait until things get back to working order at home. Again, this is one of those goals that I'm hoping will become a daily habit with practice.

* order seed catalogues and place seed order
I've ordered my catalogs and now I'm just waiting for them to arrive. I have a pretty good idea of what I want to grow; I think that deciding on varieties and not being swayed by all the "cool" varieties available will be the hard part.

* embroider set of cloth napkins
I didn't get to this one. Mom brought me all of her old embroidery thread from when she used to cross-stitch, and I've got everything ready and waiting in a basket, but I just haven't started on it.

* knit 2 projects this month (scarf?)
I got one dishrag finished, and I'm about a third of the way finished with Cassidy's scarf. I would've been much farther along on it, but I had to restart it three different times. Chris and Cami have both requested scarves, so that's probably what I'll work on in February. Here's what Cass's scarf looks like:

* save money for treadmill purchase
Again, one of those projects that has been put aside for a bit. We've got some car repairs to deal with first...

* make dr appointment and get thyroid regulated
This was on my to-do list for this week, but a little something called an ice storm got in the way. I will definitely be taking care of this once everything is back to normal around here.

* ride bike to work whenever possible (will depend on weather and work travel schedule)
 This just wasn't possible this month -- it was too cold and I traveled entirely too much. It's looking like I won't  be able to do much riding in February either, since I've got events scheduled for almost every single day.

* purge remaining scrapbook supplies
I've got several big piles; I think the plan now is to offer them up for sale as small kits here on the blog, so keep your eyes peeled for that within the next couple of weeks. 

I'm working on new goals for February (and deciding which of these I'll carry forward. I'm happy with this system so far though -- I do feel like I got several important things accomplished. Right now, it's time to head back to the couch for some snuggle time with the littlest. We're working our way through Little House in the Big Woods. It was one of my most favorite books when I was younger, and I'm so excited to be sharing it with Cami.

winter storm '09

I feel like I should have one of those announcers reading my title in his best "Sunday, SUNDAY, SUNDAY!!!" voice. I meant to post all this yesterday, but I thought it would make the post too long, so I just waited until today.

We're safe and in Memphis with family right now. The first wave of the storm blew threw on Monday night; we woke up to freezing rain and ice blanketing all the trees and powerlines. Our power went out around 9:30 am because a line broke in our backyard. The power company arrived around 4:00 and had us hooked back up by 5:00 pm.  We spent the day just hanging out in the house -- things stayed pretty warm, to be honest, even with no heat. It rained all day long, but since temperatures were below freezing, all of that kept freezing on contact with the trees and powerlines. Here are a few pictures from the day.

Once we got power again at 5:00, we bumped the heat up so that we could get the house nice and toasty. Plus, we knew that another wave of ice and snow was on the way, and we figured that if the electricity went out, we could stay warmer a little bit longer. All night long, we kept hearing branches breaking and falling all over the neighborhood; it sounded like gunshots coming every 10 minutes or so. The power went out around 3 am and we woke to more than an inch of ice and over 3 inches of snow coating everything. We had no heat and electricity, no water from a main water line break in the county, no cell phone service, and no internet. Essentially we were totally cut off from everything and everyone. Luckily my cell phone has an FM Radio so we were able to tune in to the local university station and stay caught up. At that point, we were told that things wouldn't be fixed for a minimum of 3-5 days, so we loaded up and came to Memphis.

Here are some shots of the trees down in our backyard and in the yards next to us.

We also grabbed a few shots on the way out of town -- with all the rain we'd gotten, parts of the quad on campus looked like a big frozen lake.

So we're here, warm and safe in Memphis, and waiting to find out when we can head back home.

Don't forget about my photography contest going on -- leave a link to your favorite photo in the comments and you can win the new collab I created with Liz of Paislee Press Designs. Here are a couple more layouts made with the kit:

photogenic

A while back, Liz and I talked about doing a collab together; I think she is seriously one of the most talented designers out there right now, so I was thrilled when she agreed. Here's what we came up with:

Here are a couple of layouts that I made with the kit:

I know this is definitely a kit you'll want to add to your digi stash; so how about a chance to win it for free before you buy it? Liz and I are both having contests on our blogs. Read on to find out about mine.
(Check out Liz's blog to find out more about hers).

I'll be announcing the winner on Sunday, and sending out the discount code to all participants then as well! It's such an easy way to win a free kit or to get a 20% discount on the kit, so make sure you enter!

Check out these additional layouts; there are so many versatile ways to use this kit.

I can't wait to see your favorite photos!

sneak peek

There's something really incredible coming to the digi-world on Thursday, if I do say so myself. ;)

so I read...a lot

and I do mean A LOT. Late in 2007, I stumbled across Goodreads, which is a really great social networking site that centers around reading. You can build virtual bookshelves so you can keep track of what books you've read, what you want to read; you can classify them in just about any means possible, from genre to "I hated this so much I threw it across the room." You can also participate in challenges and other fun reading-related activities. Based partly on the some challenges I'd come across and partly just to see if I could do it, I set a reading goal of 200 books last year. In the end, I fell just a bit short of my goal, however: I ended up reading 197 books and logged over 50,000 pages read. I was quite proud of myself, not only for the sheer number I achieved, but also because I really stretched my reading habits and read a large number of nonfiction books and other novels that I normally wouldn't have looked at. That's probably my favorite thing about Goodreads: the fact that I can find out about so many new books. Of course, that makes things hard on my pocketbook -- thankfully Murray has a somewhat decent library.

My friend Mel runs a great blog on books and reading over at www.litchickcafe.com, and she recently posted her Top 10 list for 2008. I thought I'd play along -- plus, a I have a few additional lists to add, because my "favorites" list from 2008 does number more than 10.

So here goes:
My Top 10 Books for 2008
(in no particular order)
1. The Ghost in Love, Jonathan Carroll
2. The Invention of Everything Else, Samantha Hunt
3. Perfect Circle, Sean Stewart
4. The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss
5. The Girl with No Shadow, Joanne Harris
6. Eva Moves the Furniture, Margot Livesey
7. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, Maggie O'Farrell
8. The Book Thief, Marcus Zusek
9. Einstein's Dreams, Alan Lightman
10. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver

I also read a number of young adult/children's novels; here are my top 3.
1. The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selnick
2. What I Was, Meg Rosoff
3. The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, Jeanne Birdsall

Honorable Mentions (these books received 5 stars from me on Goodreads this year but didn't make my list):
1. The Bell at Sealy Head, Patricia A. McKillip
2. Chasing Vermeer / The Wright Three, Blue Balliett
3. The Arrival, Shaun Tan
4. Losing My Faculties, Brandon Halpin
5. A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
6. Love Stargirl, Jerry Spinelli
7. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, Sherman Alexie
8. The Barefoot Home, Marc Vassallo

new releases for February!

I've got some new products in the store at {we are} storytellers today, plus a really cool surprise that I'll be able to share hopefully on Thursday!

The February 2009 installment of my WORD 2009 project is now available -- make sure you grab it so you can get your pages printed and assembled, ready to journal away on February 1st. If you haven't seen this project yet, I encourage you to check it out. It's a great way to work on your storytelling with no pressure and very little preparation time. Each monthly installment is $15.00 (this includes a full digital kit), but if this is something you are really committed to doing each month, then I encourage you to go ahead and purchase the full year-long subscription. At only $90.00, you'll end up paying only half the price you'd pay if you buy each month's installment separately. Plus, the year-long subscription won't be available forever -- by the end of April, I'll be pulling it from the shop and your only option to purchase the installments will be individually each month.

This month's kit, Lovey Dovey, is a gorgeous blend of blue and orange with a neutral background, lots of texture, and plenty of customizable elements. I wanted to do a love kit, but not a typical Valentine's Day kit -- I think I've come up with something that is elegant yet still whimsical and can be used for a wide variety of pages.

Here are a couple of pages I made earlier today: one of my cousin Billy's wedding and one about my new nephew Oliver.

celebrating this weekend

Lots on my to-do list this weekend, but thankfully most of it doesn't even involve me getting out of my pajamas most days. I like pajama days on the weekend, to be honest. So let's see -- what's in store for today?

I need to finish a set of custom quotes for a customer, send download links for two products to another customer, finish my February WORD 2009 project, finish one class assignment, and drop off the recycling and some books at the library. The girls are going to a birthday party this afternoon, so I'll run those errands then. Aside from that, it's just plugging away here at the computer while doing laundry and dishes throughout the day. There's a roast cooking in the crock pot, so supper is taken care of, and I'll take a few breaks to do a little reading and knitting.

Speaking of knitting, here's the progress I've made on the blue scarf. Slowly, slowly...I had to frog it twice because each time I dropped a stitch and messed up putting it back on. It's a learning process, as I've said so many times before, but I'm enjoying the process.

We've got great things to celebrate around here this weekend too. Cami made it onto the reading wall of fame at school this week. While she loves books, she has had some struggles in learning to read. She's been quite frustrated at the fact that it is hard work and hasn't just come so easily -- the problem is that she's been looking at us and sees how easy reading is for us, and expects it to be that way for her. What she doesn't realize is how much more practice we've had. Anyway, because of that, she wasn't taking any AR tests at school, so we've really been working on that. She took 5 tests this past week, though, and was thrilled to make it on the wall.

And Cass is celebrating because she was named First Chair in trumpet for the middle school band! These photos are from the Christmas concert back at the beginning of December. They got to perform in Lovett Auditorium on MSU's campus, which was really cool.

BOOK FAIR

That's right -- it's time once again for one of the great weekly promotions going on at {we are} storytellers. This week, I had the honor of creating the digital kit on sale for the Book Fair, and I really had a lot of fun with it. It's packed full of fun western elements, plus some adorable vintage valentines.

Just drop this kit in your cart -- at only $2.00 it's a real bargain -- and take an additional 35% off two more items in our boutique! You really can't beat that, but you have to act quickly, since the sale is only good for 24 hours (it ends at midnight tonight, EST). After that, the kit reverts back to regular price, which is $4.99.

Some of our very talented storytellers at {wst} put together a few layouts with the kit, and I wanted to share them with you here, because they did some amazing work.

layout by Carolee

layout by Erica

layout by Diane

layout by Steph

layout by Kristy

We've got a fun contest going on in our {study lounge} too. The challenge is easy : tell your story with this week's Book Fair kit and get a chance to win next week's kit!

How does that work ? Your layout must use at least 75% of this week's Book Fair kit to be eligible. Make sure you post in the gallery, between Thursday (January 22) and Tuesday (January 27), then link up in this thread before 11:59:59 pm EST on Tuesday (January 27) to be eligible for the prize. Winner will be selected by the host.

Lastly, I just updated the {wst} blog with a new {writer's notebook} post -- stop by and spend a bit of time with us, sharing your layouts and your thoughts.

praise song for the day

I am tired -- it was a long day of driving for me (about 5 hours, in fact), followed by dinner out with homework finished at the restaurant and gymnastics, then showers for the kiddos, with some trumpet playing and Junie B. Jones thrown in for good measure. Add to that another hour or so spent designing on Photoshop, and it's just been a full day. But I didn't want to go to sleep for the night without posting something about my thoughts for the day.

I haven't seen any actual TV footage of the inauguration, nor have I even seen photos. My exposure today was limited to what NPR was able to bring me, which fortunately, was coverage of the entire event. I do not know what I could add to the millions of sentiments already expressed in regards to President Obama's speech (my oldest, Cassidy, thought it was "the coolest thing ever" and particulary liked the part where he said that you would be remembered by the things you build, not the things you destroy). The man fills me with such hope -- yet I am not disillusioned when it comes to what lies ahead. I know that he alone is not the solution to our country's problems. I do believe that those people who think so are setting themselves up for disappointment. BUT I do feel inspired by him, moved to action and service by him, and to me, that is what I find so hopeFULL and moving about this election.

One of the most moving portions of the entire day for me was Elizabeth Alexander's inaugural poem; I love that it celebrates the everyday ordinary moments, the beginning inherent in each of these things, and especially the power of words to make these things happen, to urge that beginning into the light. As a writer, as a scrapbooker, as someone who feels that the stories I have to tell -- about those everyday, simple, ordinary moments -- are things that matter immensely, this poem spoke to me today. And so I share it with you here, in hopes that it may speak to you again, on a second reading or a third, and move you to words, and then to action, anywhere you see the need.

Praise song for the day.

Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each others' eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All about us is noise. All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each one of our ancestors on our tongues. Someone is stitching up a hem, darning a hole in a uniform, patching a tire, repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum, with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.

A farmer considers the changing sky; A teacher says, "Take out your pencils. Begin."

We encounter each other in words, words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said, "I need to see what's on the other side; I know there's something better down the road."

We need to find a place where we are safe; We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain, that many have died for this day. Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce, built brick by brick the glittering edifices they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle; praise song for the day. Praise song for every hand-lettered sign; The figuring it out at kitchen tables.

Some live by "Love thy neighbor as thy self."

Others by first do no harm, or take no more than you need.

What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to preempt grievance.

In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.

On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp -- praise song for walking forward in that light.

why you should visit {wst} today

{wst} = http://www.wearestorytellers.com

Because we're running our weekly sales special, that's why! A 24-hour sale. 25% off all items storewide (except for commercial use items, classes, and publications -- but that still leaves TONS of great stuff!)

Like my Everyday Celebrations kit, or my Papercut Alpha, or Branch & Berry . You'll love them all!

Also, this is a PERFECT time to stop by the {wst} blog because I'm holding a contest to win a free copy of my monthly WORD 2009 class for February. One random participant will get a full digital kit, plus daily writing and photo prompts, sketches, and tons of journaling inspiration -- and it's FREE! All you have to do is read this post and complete the challenge. It's so easy -- and did I mention that it's FREE?

(Yes, I know that's the January image -- I don't have February completely finished yet. It'll arrive sometime during the final week of January. The kit's lovely, by the way -- I'm quite happy with it!)